Winter Wonderland

With Christmas approaching comes the wonderful winter break! This involves three weeks straight of hanging out with family and friends, sleeping and shopping. With me being a college student and all, my family doesn't expect much from me this Christmas. Unlike their expectations, I would like to get a job over break to make a little cash to buy everyone nice gifts. The problem is, I've never had a "real" job before and I want one that pays at least $10/hour. Minimum wage is far under that and I don't want to settle for low pay. I then run into the dilemma of having no where to work. I refuse to work at a clothing store at the mall and there's really nothing else to do. Best Buy would start me out at $8.25/hour but I can't stand being on my feet all day and dealing with annoying customers. The only other place I can think of is going back to babysitting but it's not a steady work schedule. I want to work 5 days a week while being at home and babysitting would only satisfy my needs on Friday and Saturday nights. Sure, anyone could take money from their parents but I would feel better If I got a job and paid for presents myself. Well, please don't hesitate to offer your suggestions on where pays good and a place for me to work for a few weeks. Thanks!

Photo Cred: http://www.shelbyandmike.com/chicago.html

-Britt

Taste of Russia

At a very young age I became best friends with my neighbor who lived 2 doors down from me. She was born right around Chicago, but her parents and grandma were from Russia. In the summers, I was at my friends house a lot. I usually ate either lunch or dinner at her house and got fed pretty well. On occasion, her grandma would make this carrot juice which I hated. Her grandma insisted that it was good for her granddaughters health and always made her drink it. Whenever I was there, I tried to slip into the bathroom when it was being served. I hated it, along with the orange mustache that came along with it. The thing was, I felt really close to my neighbors and treated them like family. I felt bad that I didn't like the carrot juice and also felt like the family disliked me at times when I didn't eat their food. Out of respect, I would sometimes take a few sips of the drink, but it still tasted gross for my 6 year old picky-ness. In addition, I don't like caviar and dreaded when it would be served by my friends mother on a slice of bread. I really felt like my friend Michelle's mother would get mad at me even when I politely said, "no thanks" to an offering from her. Since the 90s, I've managed to eat numerous meals with my neighbors. They have accepted that I don't like some of their traditional food and usually even make something on the side for me. It's interesting how food shapes who we are and how we are accepted into different cultures and groups of people.

I found that picture through Google's search engine at http://www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockphoto.asp?imageid=622482

-Britt

Can't Trust Anyone

As the true Purdue football fan I am, I went down to IU this past weekend to celebrate the rivalry. Although I didn't have a ticket to the game, I knew it was going to be a good day; I was totally wrong. Despite praying the night before for a safe and happy Saturday, I felt completely insecure and angry. The day started out bad by leaving Purdue nearly 2 hours after our planned time of departure. By the time we got to Bloomington, we waited in this one lane on the highway for nearly 45 minutes and moved about 1 mile. After getting news from a friend on how to bypass the traffic, me and my friends proceeded to campus the quick way, but then were stuck with the issue of where to park. This was my first time at IU and who knew a campus could be so huge and run out of parking within a reasonable walk to the stadium. After stuffing my face and watching the game from a decked out Purdue bus, me and my group of friends went to an apartment to hangout for the rest of the night; what a bad idea. It was all nice and dandy with only about 15 kids in this apartment when all hell broke loose. To my astonishment, my purse which was sitting next to a couch the whole night suddenly disappeared. All together my Dooney and Bourke purse, along with my digital camera, keys, debit card, cash and license plus other valuables were in there. The rest of the time from then until this afternoon was one big mess. I was all over the place trying to get money out from my debit card when I had no ID, but I couldn't get an ID without cash and I couldn't get my locks changed without my ID to use Boiler Express on it. Sorry for ranting, but I really need to get out my anger. Whoever stole my purse deserves to get all of their stuff stolen. I just don't understand how someone can be so inconsiderate and harsh. Lesson learned: never put your stuff down no matter how few of people are at the place you are at or how well you know the people there.

Born Into Brothels

This is Zana Briski accepting her Academy Award for her documentary from the India Tribune.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050301/wd3.jpg



Zana Briski explores every single aspect of these children's lives that makes them stand out, in a sense, comparing them to poor people in the United States. She shows her audience how there's a difference between not having enough money to being in extreme poverty. It's quite fair that the lives of these children are "on display." In no way does this public display of their lives hurt them. If anything, it helps them because every single person who has seen this movie will be effected by it. Whether one will simply donate a dollar to Briski's organization, buy one of the kid's photos or even start their own movement, there is a difference being made. Even people like me who saw this movie made a difference. I told at least 2 people about this movie when I got done watching it and they were deeply engaged in what it was all about. Obviously, there was a privacy issue and I'm sure the children and their parents gave consent to have their lives taped and be in a documentary seen throughout the world. The ends for sure justify the means. Just by making this documentary, Briski is successful by getting her story out. A child can give consent, even though they do not know how Briski is going to portray them. Their parents should know that obviously Zana is out to prove something and they are "risking" their identity to be shown to the public. I think her documentary is successful and we see this in the clip that goes back to Calcutta 3 years later. They were all better educated, had a stronger sense of self and knew about their world around them. Although some may still live in the brothels, they are better educated and have more options on what to do with their lives.

-Britt

Triple XXX

I finally took my first trip to the famous Triple XXX diner on Friday night. When I stepped into the family restaurant, I felt like it was 1942. There were cute orange and black stools lining 2 rows of old school tables, complimented by black and white photos on the walls. According to their menu, they are Indiana's first drive in restaurant. I thought it was pretty cool that I was at a place that makes history, as well as air time on the Food Network. It was quite small inside, but I figure you could still fit about 40 people in there sitting on the stools. My waitress wasn't very nice, but I don't blame her. Having to work on a Friday night serving college kids must suck. I got chicken fingers and spicy curly fries, which I probably shouldn't have because neither are really "homemade" or fresh. I was going to go for a shake after dinner, but I simply felt like my tummy was going to burst after all of the food I ate. The prices are pretty much standard and I would recommend going there for a quick bite on a Friday night! It seems like a really popular place and they even cut their meat up fresh, never frozen, every morning for all of you burger eaters!


I had a picture but it won't upload so here's the website...
http://www.triplexxxfamilyrestaurant.com/index.html

-Britt

New Mindset

That's a picture that was taken at a Farmer's Market near my house.

http://arlingtoncardinal.blogharbor.com/blog/Photos/FarmersMarket/_archives/2007/8/18/3166436.html

Although I learned a lot in the past few weeks on how much corn is in my diet, where most of my food comes and how most of it is made, my views haven't changed that much on what I will eat. I was always pretty aware that there's corn in everything from the pop I drink to the steak that I don't eat. It grossed me out quite a bit knowing how cows are raised, but I've never eaten steak in my life, so it doesn't effect me learning that these animals are basically force-fed cornflakes which are bad for them in the long run. One thing I will try to change from now on is my view grown food, even if locally means from California. Hey, California is closer than China. If anyone watches John and Kate Plus 8 on TLC, they went to an organic farm and bought all of this organic meat. It was really interesting to see how such a on where my food comes from. Since I am at college and it's hard to find these things out, I don't feel bad for myself that I am eating food that was shipped tens or hundreds of thousands of miles to get to me. On the other hand, when I am at home for thanksgiving and winter break, I will try to purchase and eat more locally big family can manage to eat as much organic food as they possibly can!

-Britt

Little Ones

Ever since I can remember, I've loved little kids. From a set of twins in my extended family, to my neighbors grandson, they always bring a smile to my face. At my high school, three teachers and students ran a preschool twice a day. For two years, I took classes that allowed me to help out in the preschool and those were some of the funnest times in school. We took the little ones on field trips to places like the Brookfield Zoo and the Kohl Children's Museum. Through being in this class, you get to meet the kids' parents and talk with them when they drop and pick their child or children up. Through a particular child's mom, I got a babysitting job for a set of three year old twins, whom the mother knew from selling a house to this family. I was so excited when I found out I would be getting to babysit a set of twins! Better yet, one was a girl and one was a boy. I didn't mind getting paid ten dollars an hour to play a few games and watch TV after putting them to bed. Usually I would actually babysit them for two hours and watch TV for the other four. Nonetheless, I cherished the time I had with them. Not only did I have a good job, but it was a job I actually liked. The family lives only three minutes away, driving, so I would always be there whether it was pouring rain or snowing for hours. Saying bye to them at the end of this summer was really hard. I can't wait to see them over winter break. I just wish there was a job where I could mix pharmacy and being with children all day.

-Britt

You Can't Fool Me

The ad I am looking at from an overview looks like the scene of an Emergency Room. There is a blue tone to it with four people in the picture. Three of the people seem to be doctors, all suited up, working on the one person, who only has their feet showing. This mystery person is lying on a table with a white sheet over him. Closer to us, there is a screen with obviously this persons blood pressure on it we assume. The up and down vital lines make the classic "M" used by McDonald's. At the bottom of the screen, it says, "BIG MAC ATTACK!" The ad is referencing McDonald's, and basically how bad it is for you and that this man ate a Big Mac and had a heart attack. In short, your arteries clog and McDonald's is a heart attack waiting to happen. If successful means showing people that McDonald's is bad for you, then it succeeds beyond any standards of doing that. It's also successful in that it truly looks like a real ad until you see the "M." It grabbed my attention and actually made me chuckle a little because it's all true. I know McDonald's is bad for me and even though I don't get Big Mac's, I still love their chicken mcnuggets! YUM.

Here's a spoof ad I found myself, from Hit Jokes

http://www.hitjokes.com/html/A-Little-McDonalds-in-Everyone.html




-Britt

Fall Back

We all know about the whole "fall back, spring ahead" thing we do with changing our clocks and messing with our sleeping patterns. Personally, I love it. I guess parts of Arizona don't agree with me on this because a portion of them don't participate in daylight savings time. When Saturday night rolled around and my friend called me for our weekly talk, she informed me of something very special. She was like, "Don't worry that it's late and stuff, because we turn the clocks back tonight." I practically jumped for joy when I realized that I could spend that extra hour being awake until four in the morning writing my research paper! I've always pondered about stupid things like, on the TV guide channel will they play the same show again when they turn the clocks back; or what if Wendy's closes at 2, but I go there at 2, when it's really now one in the morning...can I still get my nuggets? The plus side to this revolution is that I don't have to walk to class when it's still half dark outside. I can now sip my coffee and have the sun shining in my face! On the other hand, after working on my facilitation with my group today, I went outside and it was completely dark out. I was sad that the day was pretty much over so early and I had to walk to the co-rec in the dark. (Not cool let me tell you.) Anyways, I can't wait until December when I get out of English and the stars will be up in the sky already!

-Britt

Sweep

I feel bad for the Colorado Rockies. The fact that my roomie, her boyfriend and my best friend go to Boulder make my feel for Colorado. They have never won a World Series, and for that reason, deserve to have won it this year. It's completely unfair for Boston to sweep the World Series AGAIN. I don't know if there's a curse on the Rockies or anything, but it sucks to be them. Usually if the Cubs aren't in the World Series, I don't bother watching; but since the Rockies were doing so good until last week, I just had to keep up with the games. In addition, the Red Sox clearly have too much money and buy every single good player like the Yankees do. It's an unfair advantage that the East has on every other team in Major League Baseball. I always wanted to see a game at Fenway park, but now I am just pissed at the Red Sox for beating a team that badly. It's just plain mean to not even give them one game to try and catch up. Like 2004, Boston still thinks they're the best city ever just because they have a great baseball team. Then again, if the Cubs won the World Series I would probably be bouncing off the walls reppin' Chicago as well as Boston does. Even though Colorado lost, they should still be very proud of themselves that they got this far!

-Britt

Homecoming Week

As we all know, last week was homecoming week here at Purdue. Coming from a high school who got very into all the activities and games surrounding homecoming, I had high expectations from Purdue. Besides the weather being bone-chilling, there were other things that upset my week. There should have been activites in the dorms to go along with last week. All I heard about was a parade, along with fireworks on Friday and Saturday prior to the football game. The Boilermakers DID beat Northwestern, who hails from about a half hour from my house, but I didn't feel like people got into the game enough. I did enjoy a few things though, which included the black pom poms which were given out, Purdue Pete tackling the Northwestern gorilla and seeing Neil Armstrong. I think next year, the school should schedule Homecoming week farther away from Halloween. Since a lot of people were out partying on Friday night, it was difficult to get the max number of students up early enough to get to Ross-Ade. The best part of the game was probably when the sun came out and shined just when the clock ran out and we finished the game!

-Britt

GMO's, Who Knows

-chocolate chip pancakes
-scrambled eggs
-chocolate milk
-apple juice
-take 5 candy bar
-bottled water
-apple
-tuscan chicken flat bread
-Barq's root beer



When I look at what I ate yesterday, from the start I know that I had no "slow-cooked" meals or anything that would do any good to the environment. I bet a lot of my food was genetically modified. The genetically modified foods I think I ate include eggs, the apples in my apple juice, the soybeans and peanuts in my Take 5 bar, and the tomatoes and onions in my flat bread. I believe that basically anything that came from the ground was probably genetically modified. I'm not one of those "organic" people, so I didn't eat anything organic, nor had any intent to if I did. Since most of my meals came from the dining halls or places where I couldn't check labels, I'm not too sure of the whereabouts of my meals. I am sure, though, of a few foods. The candy bar I made came from Hershey Pennsylvania, the apple I ate came from Washington, the bottled water came from a river in Tennessee and the root beer was bottled overseas in either Indonesia or China. It can't be healthy knowing that a lot of the things I ate included soybean oil or high fructose corn syrup. Even though I didn't eat any "slow food," the pancakes and eggs still took some time to cook up. The Tuscan Flat bread would be considered fast food to me and that's a category I should probably cut back on.

-Britt

Halloween

When I was younger, I loved how my mom would make me a really intense costume or dress me up in a ridiculously cute animal outfit. The fact that you get to go from house to house getting free candy from your creepy neighbors was pretty much the best thing in the world. Upon approaching middle school you ditch the parents and are finally let out to go trick-or-treating by yourself. You pray that your parents let you stay out a little later since it IS a holiday and you have school the next morning. In high school, it's all about being tan and making a fool of yourself, all while celebrating Halloween that Friday and Saturday before it's even October 31st. Later in the high school years and of course college, most girls get too tan and overexpose themselves for the big night. I'm not saying it's not fun to be a little out there and stuff, but it's crazy how you can go from dressing up like a cute little bunny rabbit to dressing up like a Playmate. I find it completely nuts that in many parts of the world, people don't go trick-or-treating, nor know what Halloween is. I know in Mexico, Halloween is actually to honor the dead. I sometimes feel bad that us Americans have changed this holiday so drastically. Well, now that pumpkin carving is just around the corner, what's everyone being for Halloween this year?!

-Britt

Squirmy Wormy

Worms are quite possibly the stickiest, slimiest and sickening organisms to prawl under and on our sidewalks. Due to the rain showers today, all the worms were on the go and in their full suit of 9 inch attractiveness. I can sometimes stand them if I'm planting flowers and happen to come across them. On the other hand, when I'm trying to rush somewhere to get out of the rain when it's dark out, I hate these creepy crawlers getting in the way of me tip-toeing around campus. Worms should serve two purposes and two purposes only. Number one, they should be implanted in dirt pudding for that extra flavor at the end of your dessert. Number two, worms can be used for decoration around this lovely Halloween time! Of course, they are vital to the cycle of life, and our soil would most likely suck without them, but hypothetically, if they served no purpose, I would not mind banishing them from planet Earth. I think the people that love and or used to eat worms are just plain out of their minds. Finally, on my last complaint, I hated opening them with a scalpel in high school biology class and pinning their sides to a wax plate. Gross!

-Britt

GO GREEN

CATEGORY ACRES

FOOD 4.4

MOBILITY 1

SHELTER 2.7

GOODS/SERVICES 3.5

TOTAL FOOTPRINT 12

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.


IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 2.6 PLANETS.

I never would of thought that if everyone lived like me, we would need 2.6 planets. I barely get in a car here at Purdue and when I do, it's a two mile drive at the farthest. Also, I walk pretty much everywhere except when it rains. I think that it's not fair that we consume more resources than we are allowed. Just because we have the technology in more developed countries, doesn't mean we should use it like there's no tomorrow. If I lived in a third world country I would definitely be upset with the way Americans treat the environment and how we are so ecologically inefficient. I know in the past few years or so there has really been a big push for "going green." I believe we have taken big steps to save our Earth and everyone needs to contribute to keeping the world clean. In addition, countries that make lots of our products have very loose laws on pollution and waste. These other countries need to be more strict about how they dispose of their waste, take care of their cars and do their day to day activities. Since there's no cure for restocking the Earth's resources, us as Americans should use our knowledge of keeping our Earth alive and spread it across the world.

-Britt

Mail Please!

I'm pretty sure that about every two weeks or so, you should get a package in the mail from your parents or something. At the beginning of the school year, I got a few packages and was like, "Wow this is sweet!." In the past few weeks, I haven't even gotten a lousy card in the mail from anyone. I go to my mailbox today and find about 6 envelops from Purdue telling me about my Boiler Express Account, how much money I owe the school or other useless information. First of all, according to SSINFO, all my billing stuff should be going to my house, like in Illinois where my parents are so they can send in a check or whatever. Then, Purdue pisses me off by sending me all these letters in which I have to send back home at a cost of around $1.20 or something. Why are stamps and large envelopes so expensive? Clearly, if someone sent me fresh baked cookies or brownies I wouldn't be complaining now. Moral of the story, since I am the youngest in my family, I should be receiving the most packages in the mail... and I'm not. I guess my mommy and daddy don't love me too much! ha.

-Britt

the weatherman

Have you ever had those days when you wake up in the morning, greeted by no sun and a bunch of rainclouds overhead? Then by the time you start walking to class it's either freezing and chilly or rainy and cold. I hate how the sun doesn't rise till super late and now that winter is coming, it's going to be dark at around 4:30. I'm so much happier when I can roll out of bed knowing it will be a nice 70 degree day with the sun shining on my face. When it's forty degrees out or looks like it's going to rain, I simply just want to sit in my room and watch a movie while having my blanket wrapped around me. No one wants to really go to class when it's a gloomy day. I don't even want to study for a test or do homework when it's not beautiful out. Therefore, I am considering having an artificial UV sun lamp installed into the ceiling of my room. I'll perk it up by throwing some sand on the ground and plugging in a few light up palm trees. I've dealt with the cold for way too long in the Windy City and I need to move south or something. Snow is nice and all, but when I have to drive in it, it gets pretty ugly. Until next time, I'll be doing something productive until the sun goes away!

I'd rather be here...




-Britt

rOCkTOBER BREAK

Over this October break, which flew by extremely fast, I did some catching up with family, friends and shopping. While trying to catch up with my mom and sister on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we decided to go to the local Apple Fest in a cute little historic town of Long Grove which is about 20 minutes away from my house. This was the 15th year of the fest and it was super hot out, which attributed to the fun time I had. Basically, there are a bunch of little shops within a block or two which you can walk around and buy anything from apple cider donuts to apple pies to apple lattes, etc. My favorite are the donuts. Me and my sister waited in line for a good half hour (in the scorching heat) just for a dozen. After that, we got fresh apple cider. Upon almost finishing it, I took the lid off and discovered a tiny bug in the cup and I almost puked. Unfortunately, I had to pass on the free face painting and was too big to go in the fire safety house. I wish I would have stayed longer to see a few bands play on one of the many stages set up. Next year I think my whole family will just go to an apple orchard in Wisconsin to get our own donuts and apples. This was fun, but there's nothing like climbing the tree yourself and eating apples that you picked yourself!

I didn't take any pictures myself at the fest, but that's kind of what the downtown area looks like. It's small and cute with little shops all in a row!

Prized Poetry

Here's a poem I wrote. I really don't want anyone to read this becuase frankly, I think it's terrible. We can't all be great Walt Whitman, but I try. I seem to have run out of topics to write about each week so maybe poetry will spice this up a bit. So sit down with a warm cup of cocoa and feast your eyes on this baby.

Anxious sprinted to the mailbox
Opened the letter
Frolicked around

Anxious bought me new apparel fit for a new school
Anxious found me a roommate
So I was completely secure with myself
Anxious mapped out my dorm room
Specifically placing everything in its perfect place
Anxious was excited to meet new friends
Was psyched to see best friends as old as the universe
Anxious took me to my first frat party
And brought me home jealous and worn out the next morning
Anxious went to the furiously fun football game against Notre Dame

Anxious called her parents every night
Gave them the I-miss-you-dearly-speech on the phone
Never knew being away would be so lonely
Anxious took the Amtrak home every Friday

Anxious sprinted to the mailbox
And grinned at her grades
Saying to herself, “this rocks!”

-Britt

James Loewen

By idolizing those whom we honor, we do a disservice both to them and to ourselves....We fail to recognize that we could go and do likewise.
--Charles V. Willie

In Loewen's chapter, we see that we honor people that we shouldn't be honoring; at least that's what I got out of it. We only recognize people for the good things they've done in life and fail to realize their wrong doings. This is not true for everyone though. For others, we look at them for being a good person and we don't even know why they are a good person, like Helen Keller. This saying from Charles V. Willie goes along exactly with Loewen's point. I am one of the many Americans who have been pulled into my middle school history book and only learned the goodness in heroes and never even talked about how they either cheated the government, killed neighbors or stealing money. I totally agree with this epigraph. It's simply not right to honor those who don't deserve to be honored. I for one, myself, could save a few homeless people and call it a day. But do you see me in a history book?! Of course not, because I am no president or woman of color who has done a great deed to the nation. I feel like the people that I thought were my heroes now have no reason to be. For instance, Ryan Theriot is my hero. I only seem to look at what amazing plays he's made and don't even think about how he failed me in the playoffs this past week.

-Britt

Is That a Dress?

Yesterday evening, me and a couple friends decided to go eat at Ford instead of Earhart or Hillenbrand, where we usually go. So of course I was really excited and in a good mood to eat quality pizza, Chinese food and dessert. I got my food and sat down at our table when I glance over to my right. A girl who looked about my age had this dress on. The thing in, that DRESS is really a shirt. First of all, I was angry because I have the same shirt and I don't like having the same clothes as other people. Not to mention, this girl was wearing the shirt as a dress. This shirt isn't even a longer one. It's clearly made to stop at your waist but apparently she thought differently. It was big and baggy and way too long on her. I was just pissed she had the same shirt as me and couldn't even wear it properly. Other than that, this girl ruined my dinner. To top things off, I felt like a moose after eating and thought I was going to die while walking home (because I ate so much).

Does anyone else get mad when someone is wearing the same thing as you?!

-Britt

Underprivileged at Purdue

I have yet to understand why Purdue University doesn't allow freshman students to have vehicles here. I think the rule is that if you don't live in a residence hall you can have one but if you do, then you're screwed. My RA said that there isn't enough parking for everyone but clearly, there's a brand new parking garage next to my dorm which has more than enough room for, let's say 50% of students to bring their cars here. It's not that I hate walking or taking the bus because I use both forms of getting my a** to class daily. I just hate waiting a half hour for a bus on the weekends or having to ride the CityBus to Walmart before arriving at the mall an hour later on the Sunday route. It's just one of those comforts that you would just LOVE having here. On the other hand, people really need to slow down when driving. Whenever I cross the street I feel like people speed up just to get me to walk faster across so they can look cool going 50mph down State. Jerks. Speaking of, as soon as I get home this weekend I'm going to hop in my Civic and pick up my friends while eating that delicious Lou Malnati's pizza!

-Britt

Love Those Dining Halls

I swear I am going to gain 20 pounds by the end of freshman year. Monday through Friday, I find myself eating one huge meal in either Earhart or Hillenbrand. As if fried rice, a salad, a wrap and some other fatty item wasn't enough...I make my way to the dessert table. I am in heaven after the main course of my meal. I manage to either have a 12 chocolate chip or sugar cookies and ice cream, or 12 chocolate chip or sugar cookies and cake! They should have a rule that you can only take one item and then you get cut off. I've seen enough large people in the dining halls to make me want to puke my meals up for the rest of the week. Now comes Saturday. The new thing to do on Saturdays now is binge eat at Ford after a home football game. I've said no thanks to going there after our big wins, but then I'll just be hungry later and will have no one to eat with. In addition to feasting like a beast, every Friday and Saturday night at about 4am I welcome a Jimmy John's sandwich or a few slices of Mad Mushroom cheesy bread into my tummy. So far today I've consumed around 1,390 calories according to some calorie counter I found online. That makes me kind of sick considering I'm probably going to eat a late night snack after working out later. In conclusion, I've found that I'll be better off this weekend when I'm at home and away from these dining halls...that is minus Chicago's very own Lou Malnati's pizza I'll be eating starting Friday night!

-Britt

Not All Native Americans Lived in Tipis

Curtis and Neidich respectively showed different angles of what the Indians of America were like. Curtis focused on displaying how these Native Americans were before the white man stepped into the picture, while Neidich portrayed "fake" history, such as violence, like one would see in an old western movie on the History Channel. Curtis staged the Native Americans with good reason. Modern life already hit them and he just wanted to show the public how they were prior to the American culture. Although he stereotyped tribes, he made the world aware of the small piece of history that was left in them. I don't understand why Neidich took the photographs he did. Both photographers edited their pictures but Neidich did what people didn't care to see. Neidich, a century too late, staged his photographs to show how Native Americans battled bloodshed through tough times. Both men wrongly showed us how the real Indians were, but they knew what they were doing and kept in mind how easy it was to persuade us stupid Americans of how we pictured these cultured people really were. I'm not saying either of these men took "bad" pictures, but neither went in and strictly captured what they REALLY witnessed. Curtis' work is nostalgic, in that, he shows the good times like headdresses, tipis and women of their era. Neidich looks back on the shadows of the Native Americans, like when they fought with the white man and other acts of violence. I simply prefer Curtis' photographs because they are blissful, rather than angry. Also, a picture in focus and cultured would look better on my wall next to a blurred image of a wounded Indian falling off of a horse.

Where's the music scene?

It's official. No good bands come to Purdue. Okay so I don't know about the past years but Purdue really sucks at getting any sort of mainstream bands to come here. We had the chance to book some big band for homecoming weekend but did we?! Of course not. The people on the committee who books concerts needs to get it straight in their heads that not many people who attend this university hail from Lafayette. I am fortunate to know that thankfully someone booked two Chicago bands to play in Lafayette in November which I am going to but besides that, I feel like everyone seems just as puzzled as I am as to why no one gets their butt over here! There's no reason students should have to drive to Indianapolis or Chicago to see a good show. What CAN be done is to have everyone go online and vote for Dave to come here! The show would be free which is pretty much amazing. I heard there was a problem that tickets at Elliott would be really expensive, but clearly we have sufficient space to have them outside. Spring would be a good time to have a big name here because everyone is pumped for the warm weather and for school to be over soon. I say everyone should non-stop email their favorite bands to get them to play for us boilermakers.

GO HERSEY!

I wish I could be back in high school right now playing sports. Of course, I don't miss the three hour practices but I miss playing the sport, having fun and being with my team. I played tennis, basketball and softball freshman year but dropped basketball from sophomore year on because I couldn't stand the coaches. Softball was my favorite sport because I was the closest with the girls on that team. I had the better tennis coach (and record) than I did in softball, but the memories and friendships I made on the field were deep. My junior year was the first year I was on varsity and I played second base. I liked the infield because I got a lot of action and was always ready to dive in the dirt. Junior year was my favorite because our team got along really well, we had a ton of pasta parties and we all even hung out sometimes on the weekends and went to the older girl's graduation parties over the summer. Senior year was really chill, as I played second base and short stop. It was nice to be the oldest (and the shortest) on the team and make the younger girls carry your equipment. We lost our first game in the playoffs and it was a real heart breaker. First of all, we beat that team twice in the regular season. Secondly, I went to middle school with a lot of the girls on the other team and wanted to beat them because there was a sense of rivalry between us. Finally, us seniors knew it was really over. I had been playing ball since I was in kindergarten and I could not believe that I just had my last at bat, hit and play that I would ever have while playing the sport. Looking back, I really miss my softball family and always having my girls there to talk to when I was having a bad day. I know I can join a softball club here at Purdue but it would be with a bunch of random girls and it wouldn't be the same as it was back home. I brought my glove and a ball here to school but it has yet to be touched or moved out of my closet.

That's my softball team from last season!

The Fog of War

Lesson #5-Proportionality should be a guideline in war.



This lesson really stuck out to me mostly through the images and percentages which darted in and out during the scene. Many cities were bombed before the nuclear war and the amount of people killed within such little time is insanity. McNamara says that 100,000 people were killed in one night, which is why proportionality should be a guideline in war. It's not right or "good" to kill 67% of the Japanese and then bomb them. Yes, we know that war involves killing but you have to draw a line somewhere that prevents wiping out a population, including innocent civilians. This argument is very persuasive to me. I don't think anyone would say that it is moral to have such a high ratio of people killed compared to the short amount of time they were killed in. If you needed anymore evidence to agree with this lesson, you could talk about the effects of the war veterans that are alive today and how messed up physically and emotionally they are; for example, look how many people were brutally wounded from the war. I think in some ways this lesson contradicts lesson #4-"Maximize Efficiency," for obvious reasons. One last thing, McNamara brings up a good question, "If we lost the war would we be war criminals?"



http://members.aol.com/tjdewey/
Vietnam Vet

Study With No Buddy

Studying is quite possibly the worst thing ever. I have a psychology test tomorrow morning which I have put off studying for for the past week. This being only my second test in college, I really have no idea how to study. In high school, we always got study guides and basically knew exactly what would be on our tests. Now, all I have is a book and a few notes from a PowerPoint that my teacher went through way too fast. Cramming is something no one should ever do. I've learned from experience (over and over again) that you simply can't study for a test, at least I can't, the night before and get a good grade on it. It's impossible and memorizing is not my kind of thing to do last minute. When it comes to nights before tests, I'm the biggest procrastinator ever. I seriously could not sit and stare at my book any longer so I'm writing this blog to take my mind off things. I've also watched The Hills and Life of Ryan, yes, exciting shows, to take a break from reading my book. I wish the stuff I'm learning was half as interesting at the life of Ishmael Beah. Give me a few more minutes and I'm about to fall asleep at my desk. Ugh, time to get back to memorizing the parts of the brain! Later

-Britt

Computer Crack

How many hours of sitting on the computer is too many hours? I thought three hours for me was a lot, but I guess not. A man in China recently died after gaming on the internet for three days straight. Are you nuts?! He fainted and the paramedics came to the internet cafe he was at and found him dead at the scene. I'm surprised I haven't heard of this happening before today. People need to get a life. Yeah, I had friends who would sit on the internet and play their stupid video games or whatever for the whole day, but this case is a little extreme. Speaking of these weirdo people, there's a lot of creeps on Myspace. For instance, a 37 year old bald headed bearded man who likes "having a good time" tries to friend me on Myspace. Do you really think I would want to be friends with you or sit and chat with you on AIM?! Things like this make me want to delete my account. I mean, Myspace was so two years ago (haha). I bet whoever I end up interviewing for my next paper is totally going to think I'm a weirdo because I admire them and they barely know me. Also, I need to meet someone to interview!

That picture is what happens to you after playing Warcraft and DOTA all day.

-Britt

Is that Ishmael?!

Right when the man introduced Ishmael Beah to the audience on Wednesday night, I didn't know how to react to seeing him. After inspecting him and such, I came to the conclusion that Ishmael looks pretty normal. I imagined him being some really tall, skinny guy with short hair. To my disbelief, he was on the shorter side, with a muscular build ( I think ), and had bigger hair! Anyway, he said a lot of powerful things and one one of them really caught my attention. Ishmael talked about how resources at school were very scarce. There would usually only be one copy of a textbook, which the teacher would have, they would share pen ink, and write extremely small and in the margins of their paper. When I heard this, it made me feel bad for always wasting paper, throwing away pens that don't work and wanting to burn my history book. Through his book and speech, Beah has influenced me to not judge people so quickly and cherish everything because you never know when it will be gone; a long way gone. I would like to somehow raise money for education supplies for the children at schools in Sierra Leone. Everyone deserves the chance to learn.

Here's a good quote I found...“I would always tell people that I believe children have the resilience to outlive their sufferings, if given a chance.”-Ishmael Beah

I found that quote at A Long Way Gone's website...http://www.alongwaygone.com/reviews.html



-Britt

Fall 07-Fall 08

Sitting here sweating in my 90 degree room and studying for my math test tomorrow, I asked my roommate, "Nikki, I have a blog due in an hour, what should I write about?" She proceeded to tell me how I should write about how attractive it is to guys when girls sweat, how funny it is to see someone pop out of a port-o-potty and how angry it makes us when girls on our floor walk around with just their sports bras on. In response, I laughed and said I simply couldn't write about those topics, so she suggested I write about my goals! So here we go. Here are some goals, stupid and not-so-stupid, that I hope to achieve from now until the first day of my sophomore year here at Purdue.
-get an A in Bio 110
-fix my digital camera
-buy a bottle of Arizona Tea that will fit in my fridge
-find a man
-tell my RA that her makeup looks terrible
-go out a few times on Thursday nights
-join some clubs
-go to Indianapolis for the Purdue IU game
-don't gain the freshman 15
-stop eating fried rice (which I eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner)
-stay in contact with my best friends from home
-refrain from dropping my tray in the dining hall
-go to a BEARS GAME
-get a job over the summer
-steal a sweet tshirt from a new friend
-go to class as often as possible
-find an apartment for next year
-GET AN A IN ENG 108



http://www.zaldiva.com/store/product3097.html
I thought this picture was precious

Boiler Blackout

Heres a picture I took at the game. Look at all that black. Boil up!

On Saturday, I went to my first Purdue football game! What an experience it was. I was pumped for the game not only because we played a team from the state I'm from, but also because I know how bad Eastern is at football. Waking up about 4 hours after going to sleep, I threw on a black Purdue football shirt and made my way to meet up with some friends. After getting bored of seeing intoxicated underage college kids fighting to get as much beer from the keg as they could, me and my friends walked to the stadium. (I freaking love how everyone dresses up for Breakfast Club) Sweating profusely after the 843758947 mile hike up the hill to Gate E, we were finally there! The cheerleaders, band, and everyone had so much energy for the game. I searched the field for my friend who's a cheerleader but had no luck in finding her little 95lb body! We were doing pretty amazing when all of a sudden, that black cloud came over us and it starting pouring rain. My phone, camera and gum all got soaked, including myself, but it was awesome to watch the game while getting drenched. We left at halftime and went to Ford to eat. I grabbed some hot chocolate since it was freezing in the dining hall and conversed with everyone about how much fun I had even though the game got delayed and we left. Purdue ended up winning (by a lot) and thanks to the win, I got 35% some Purdue gear at the University Bookstore today, which is pretty rad. Although my parents are going to be here next weekend for family day or something, I'm still super excited for the football game. There is one down side to football this weekend; Da Bears lost to the Chargers yesterday. Oh well, it was the first game!
-Britt

Diamonds

I had almost never heard of conflict diamonds before seeing Blood Diamond. I feel bad that I had no idea of what was going on in Africa or the lives, as well as arms that were being lost to the mining of diamonds. When I was younger, diamonds mesmerized me. My grandma and mother always had them and I couldn't wait to get my own diamond engagement ring. The first time I realized how important they are to people was about seven years ago when I was in Florida on a family vacation. Me and my mother were sitting on the beach when she went to adjust her chair. Then pop, her great grandmothers diamond, which was passed down to her, popped out of the pieces of metal clasping it in, and flew into the sand. Upon searching for it in the sand for two days straight and filing a police report on a missing diamond, we gave up hope on ever finding it. Since then, I'm more informed on how special and important diamonds really are to people. Like every girl, I can't wait until a special someone pops the question and places a diamond ring on my finger. I'm not the type of person who likes flashy jewelry and such, but it's still nice to have something like that to cherish forever. Then again, after being informed on conflict diamonds, I definitely want to know if what's on my finger, ears or even nose cost a little boy or girl an appendage. I couldn't live knowing I own something that caused so much conflict. I know now that 99% of diamonds on the shelves are conflict free so I'm confident that by the time I get married, this number will just to 100. Blood Diamond and Kanye's song effectively stated this very important issue. Counter-storytelling is very effective because it shows that someone cares about an issue and they are fighting back to say what they believe in. Someone as good looking as Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond does a good job pulling in the young women audience to watch this movie.




brysonburke.com/mining_angola.html

"I could have sworn I just went to bed"

So here I am. It's late and I just recently got back to my dorm from spending the weekend at home in Chicago. Not only have I lost an hour, due to the stupid time change right before arriving in West Lafayette, but I am also going to lose a lot of sleep tonight. Why must college start classes at 7:30am?! I know schools who start at 9am, which is pretty late but come on, at least 8am would be a little easier to wake up for in the morning. I go to a Big Ten school which means I'm going to watch football games. I love my Monday night football and how am I suppose to wake up at the crack of dawn when I just watched a football game until late the previous night? Over and over studies show that students perform substantially better in school even when they get that extra hour of sleep at night. You would think responsible adults would get up early to get to their jobs on time but I'm awake a good hour before my mom is even up for work. I am not at all motivated to solve my polynomial at the crack of dawn when there's dew in the grass, I can't keep my eyes open and people walk into my classroom with slippers on. Speaking of, I'm going to sleep. I slept for over 35 hours this weekend. Yes. See you all nice and late on Wednesday!

University of.....undecided

Hello fellow Purdue students. I'm writing this because I need to vent about being really frustrated right now. Rewind one week ago. My mom calls me and tells me that my sister is considering leaving her school. She goes to the University of Miami in Florida and I THOUGHT she loved it there. She's a senior now, but every fall that she was there she said she didn't like it and wanted to come home for unknown reasons. My parents basically made her stick it out and Sabrina (my sister), seemed to be alright and was fine at school. So on the phone with my mother, she is in tears and I'm totally oblivious to what's going. I call up my sister to see what the problem was and eventually, the big argument about why she wants to leave such a great school. My mom and dad did all they could to keep her there but I guess she just wasn't happy and wasn't going to stay any longer. I'm frustrated because that was her dream school and I was so happy for her when I found out she was going there. I feel bad that she was unhappy all these years and never spoke out about her concerns earlier. This past Friday she packed up and drove home. When I got home on Friday, I was happy to see her but sad to see my whole family almost turn against her since she left her school. Also, I bought a plane ticket a month ago to go visit her over our fall break and now that has all gone to hell. Her major is nursing and as of now, she'll take a few classes at the community college by my house this semester and plans to transfer to UIC or somewhere else near Chicago in the spring. I now don't exactly know why I'm frustrated with this whole situation. I just hope and pray that I like Purdue and never want to transfer out. Sorry for being so depressing...

-Britt

(we all have major) PROBLEMS

1.civil war
2.child soldiers
3.inhumane treatment
4.rape
5.illegal exportation of diamonds
6.oil supporting the war
7.AIDS epidemic
8.weapon control
9.hunger
10.families torn apart
11.torture
12.refugee crisis
13.poor economy
14.poverty
15.drugs
16.poor democracy
17.media not covering the real story
18.post war mindset
19.schooling
20.transportation

It was nearly impossible to rate these problems in the "correct" order but i did my best to narrow down the important ones.

I definitely think we can solve the AIDS problem in Africa. I'm not saying we can eliminate AIDS totally or end it by next year but together everyone can slowly help lessen the numbers greatly of people infected. The easiest way to make a difference is to educate people about whats going on. The government or organizations need to hand out flyers, videos, or anything for people to read so they are more informed about how not to spread AIDS, how to protect yourself and why it's transmitted so frequently in their continent. In addition to informing people about AIDS, first they need to know if they have it. There aren't enough clinics or places to have people tested for HIV. Clearly, all this money people donate to foundations and such can go to supplying Africa with more doctors, clinics and medicines. Speaking of medicine, many HIV drugs are being recalled lately. How come HIV drugs never get recalled in the United States? They should have the same drugs as us for treating HIV. Generic versions of these miracle drugs can be made in mass quantities for people. Basically, if people are more aware of what's going on, they will have more knowledge on how to stop the spreading of this deadly killer. The infected need to not be so hush hush on the facts of life. These possible solutions are obvious, but no one seems to care that 24 million people in Africa are living with HIV.

-Britt

Save Yourself

Hi my name is Brittany and this is my first ever blog post! I'm on the computer a lot, but I don't feel the need to tell everyone my life and that sort of thing. But, let's find out a little bit about me. Basically, I'm from the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, and I'm not "down" with the whole living-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-type thing.
I've lived in the suburbs my whole life and I try to go to the city as much as I can. I believe Chicago is the best city to live in because we have two of the best sports teams ever: the Cubs and DA BEARS! I decided to go to Purdue because they have a pretty good pharmacy school, which I'm going to try to get into in the future. Obviously, my major is pre-pharmacy and I'm not gunna lie, I'm really scared about whether or not I'll be accepted into their school.
In high school, I played tennis and softball all four years and I really wish I could find someone at school to play tennis with me sometime. Other things I enjoy include shopping, reading the sports section of the newspaper, going to the beach, and attending musical festivals.
Overall, I'm already homesick and can't wait to go home labor day weekend. I miss my family and my friends who now go to school all over the country. I look forward to this English class I'm in and hope to get a lot out of it. Always remember, live, love and laugh!